And in the latest episode of how your government ignores real problems to destroy peaceful patriots, Attorney General Merrick Garland will not say how many FBI informants are in Catholic churches, claiming he doesn’t know. Sort of like how the FBI didn’t know it was involved in (and possibly organized) the January 6 “riot” until it was proved otherwise?

A January FBI memo urged investigation of allegedly “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” in traditional Catholic communities and urged “‘the exploration of new avenues for tripwire and source developments’ against traditionalist Catholics, including those who favor the Latin Mass.” I bet those radicals even open-carry rosaries!!! Horrifying! The FBI’s source for the supposedly racist and hateful activities of traditional Catholics was the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an extremely biased, radical leftist group that attempts to bankrupt conservative organizations by labeling them “hate groups.” The FBI has since claimed it removed the anti-Catholic memo from its database.

The issue is that we cannot trust the FBI—or the DOJ (the FBI operates under DOJ jurisdiction). The FBI misses real terrorists all the time and yet has been aggressively harassing, arresting, and/or raiding peaceful pro-life activists, Trump and his supporters, and parents who speak out against stupid school policies. We cannot trust a single thing the FBI (or its bosses like Garland) says to us, especially when it’s protecting itself.

The Daily Signal quoted Sen. Josh Hawley (D-MO) grilling Garland during a Senate hearing. Biden’s AG at first denied that the Justice Department (DOJ) could do any investigations based on religion or that it is “cultivating sources and spies in Latin Mass parishes and other Catholic parishes around the country,” as Hawley put it.

“I saw the document you have. It is appalling. It is appalling. I’m in complete agreement with you. I understand that the FBI has withdrawn it and is now looking into how this could ever have happened,” Garland fumbled. Oh, I think you and the FBI do know how it happened, Merrick. The Biden administration has done its best to push the radical LGBTQ agenda and attack anything that is not new and slavish to its ideology. Devout Christians and Jews are particularly threatening to the Biden regime’s warped worldview and its demand for complete and quasi-religious compliance.

Garland claimed he’s “looking into” how the FBI published the memo in the first place. “I will tell you how it happened,” Hawley fired back. “This memorandum, which is supposed to be intelligence, cites extensively the Southern Poverty Law Center, which goes on to identify all of these different Catholics as being part of hate groups.” The senator continued, “Is this how the FBI, under your direction and leadership, is this how they do their intelligence work? They look at left-wing advocacy groups, to target Catholics? Is this what’s going on? Clearly, it is. How is this happening?”

Based on the memo, Garland’s answer was a lie. “The FBI is not targeting Catholics,” the AG asserted, “and as I’ve said, this is an inappropriate memorandum, and it doesn’t reflect the methods that the FBI is supposed to be using. It should not be relying on any single organization without doing its own work.” No kidding, Sherlock.

Hawley then asked, “How many informants do you have in Catholic churches across America?” To which the entirely untrustworthy Garland replied, “I don’t know, and I don’t believe we have any informants aimed at Catholic churches. We have a rule against investigations based on First Amendment activity, and Catholic churches are obviously First Amendment activity. I don’t know the specific answer.” That assertion about the First Amendment is particularly ironic, considering that the DOJ and FBI were directly involved in pressuring social media to censor the First Amendment right to free speech.

Oh, by the way, Garland previously lied during testimony about the FBI targeting (with anti-terrorism tools) parents who objected to schools’ policies. So we can’t trust a thing he said during the Senate testimony.

As Hawley put it to Garland, “You don’t know the specifics of anything, it seems. But apparently on your watch this Justice Department is targeting Catholics, targeting people of faith, specifically for their faith views. Mr. Attorney General, I’ll just say to you, it’s a disgrace.”

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This article was published by Pro Deo et Libertate and is reproduced with permission.